Barbara VanDenburgh

Barbara VanDenburgh

@babsvan.bsky.social

Poor, obscure, plain, and little. Writer, critic, book club host extraordinaire. Former books editor at USA TODAY. Ann Patchett told me I’m a wonderful writer.

2.6K followers1.9K following2.5K posts

Barbara VanDenburgh reposted

"Young mayor gets caught using police gym for pickup basketball" is the plot of a kids movie where the mayor is the hero

Chris Sommerfeldt@c-sommerfeldt.bsky.social

New: Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a group of his friends have been secretly using the NYPD Police Academy’s gymnasium in Queens to play pickup basketball — scrambling some operations at the facility. w/ @grahamrayman.bsky.social & Joe Anuta www.politico.com/news/2026/10...

Barbara VanDenburgh reposted

It really is okay to have opinions and preferences without having to convince yourself and the world that your thing is actually morally and politically correct

dame@dame.is

my nuclear-grade AI hot take that’s sure to get me cancelled until kingdom come is that refusing to use AI at all is rapidly becoming an extremely privileged lifestyle choice that feels social justice-y while actually being the complete opposite

There’s a little boy lying in a cart at the grocery store mainlining AI slop videos on his mom’s iPhone at full volume while she ignores him and we’re just so cooked, man. You think the kid’s can’t read now, just wait 20 years.

I keep asking myself at what point does everything finally give. You can't have a capitalist society with no social safety net in which the only thing that keeps people going is the promise of little treats, and then price them out of the little treats.

VGC@videogameschronicle.com

PlayStation 6’s memory costs alone exceed $680 per console, it’s claimed, potentially suggesting an unprecedented price tag for the next-gen machine. www.videogameschronicle.com/news/playsta...

View full thread

I live so responsibly is the thing! No trips or vacations in 2 years. I've been to just two concerts in all that time. I'm getting books and renting movies from the library and cooking at home. I make what is on paper a decent wage. I can't afford a new video game system? What the fuck are we doing

I keep asking myself at what point does everything finally give. You can't have a capitalist society with no social safety net in which the only thing that keeps people going is the promise of little treats, and then price them out of the little treats.

VGC@videogameschronicle.com

PlayStation 6’s memory costs alone exceed $680 per console, it’s claimed, potentially suggesting an unprecedented price tag for the next-gen machine. www.videogameschronicle.com/news/playsta...

I had many ideas of what adulthood as a gainfully employed gamer with no kids would look like. I should be the target market for this thing but instead I'm taking side gigs and counting pennies to cover the sudden increase of literally every bill. $1,000+ for a gaming system? Have we lost our minds?

Barbara VanDenburgh reposted

The part of the election runup where every day brings videos of Trump getting up in front of some battleground audience in his dumb hat and going "frankly you're terrible people, really disgusting. A bunch of stupid people and their awful kids. [long break for laughter and applause] Ugly as shit,"

Joe Biden’s one job was to prevent Trump from ever happening again. That was it! The thing we expressly elected him to do! And he whiffed it! He wouldn’t do the politically hard and necessary things, and now look where we are. He was an abject failure by the only measure that matters.

davidrlurie@davidrlurie.com

The tragedy of Biden's presidency is not its lack of success, but how little its success was recognized. The claim Democrats don't have a policy program is false. Finishing the projects Biden began, working with Bernie Sanders and others, should be central to the project of the next president.

Barbara VanDenburgh reposted

people keep making movies where the premise is "it's kind of like a man but it looks like a monstrous freak but it's nice and sexy and doesn't abuse the woman so it's basically the most romantic thing ever" and men keep not getting it.

This post is unavailable.

Barbara VanDenburgh reposted

Please, you guys, help if you can. Even a little bit. I don't know Ashley, but her current reality is mind-boggling to me, a person living in Canada with far better access to healthcare. Ashley shouldn't have to fight bureaucracy in order to fight for her life. 😥🩷 gofund.me/940c76ede

gofund.meDonate to Help a Mom, Wife, Teacher Battle Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma, organized by Ashley HoldenI am in a fight for my life and I need some help. Af… Ashley Holden needs your support for Help a Mom, Wife, Teacher Battle Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma

They're doing this as a threat and a warning to the rest of us.

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed in December.

Barbara VanDenburgh reposted

It‘s neck and neck between a normal guy and that dude Rorschach killed in his origin story

Barbara VanDenburgh reposted

Interesting situation where I have to be very circumspect with my words all the time and the president can openly suggest annihilating specific cities in my state.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: "With the war, it's just artificial. It's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay ... let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay."

Barbara VanDenburgh reposted

Earlier this week, I agreed to interviews with two USA Today journalists. They wrote fantastic articles about the Cornell case that I'm proud to have been a part of. What I did not know is that their employer considers interviews to proprietary and opens up recordings to be used by any journalist.

I remember having to sleep with the lights on after my parents let me watch Poltergeist when I was, what, like 4? Then they let me watch Child’s Play when I was 6 and we had to throw My Kid Sister doll away, I was so traumatized. The 80s were wild, man.

Sleepy Hollow Reviews 🎃🐎@sleepingvillage.bsky.social

In honor of scary media month: what is the first piece of media you remember truly frightening you as a child?